Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse | Book Review 

Thank you for this review. I’m 33 and this book resonated greatly with me. At times it was very dense and difficult to read. It certainly required me to read it carefully and not rush through it. I can’t quite believe this was written in the 1920s because it truly felt modern, relevant and yes...timeless really. This book made a greater impression on me than Siddartha did. The next book by Hesse I want to read is Demian. I am also eager to read Stoner because I have heard amazing things about it!

Shrek must’ve read steppenwolf, with the onion reference and all.

Absolutely LOVE that Hesse quote about literature being confessions. I read this book many years ago. Need to find a copy to add to my pile of books to be re-read.

I remember beginning to read this in my first year of High School, my English teacher told me that I should wait a couple of years before trying it. I took his advice and glad I did, it is a book that requires a solid grounding in understanding yourself otherwise it could really mess with you.

I really started reading a lot as a teen. Other books were probably loved more than this , but I really remember being startled by how modern Steppenwolf was and how much I related to the main character. I hated his life and the choices he made but really felt I could understand his thinking and feelings about things.in

Hello there Hermann Hesse is one of my favourite writers I love the books of his that I’ve read so far: ‘Demian’, Siddartha and ‘Steppenwolf’. I still need to read my copy of ‘Narcissus and Goldmund’. I find it fascinating that Hesse takes influence from Hindu and Buddhist philosophy/religion in his work.

Don't hear a lot of people talk about how Steppenwolf ends with a psychedelic trip. It seems as if people think Pablo's Magic Theater is metaphorical, but it's a quite detailed depiction of a powerful hallucinogenic experience. Makes sense considering Jung was likely into psychedelics, and Hesse spent a lot of time with him

i read this book at least three times and it's very interesting to hear about it on another language (spanish is my native language), i saw your video mainly because i never talked about it with anyone (or at least never felt like someone was interested on something old) loved the book since the first time in high school and i still feel like i'm learning and feeling more identified with harry sometimes. That wolf is defitnetly present till today but i feel like i'm more capable of "seeing him" and "talk to him". Currently i'm 24 and still learning from herman. Great video by the way, keep up the good work! PD: it's really fun to hear the translations of names, i will defitnetly learn german just to understand it a bit better next time.

Little correction, nothing mayor. Haller wasn't complaining about Mozart during his visit, but about an etching of Goethe which he thought was a misrepresentation of the image that represented Goethe. Haller believed that Goethe was also a Steppenwolf, and not the cleaned up, polished version that was being portrayed. For me this book was a great read. I'm collecting the older versions from the publisher called 'de bezige bij'. They have a colourful frontcover that looks like it is drawn and coloured in with a colourpencil. The 'wolfcover' is also nice which emphesises that it's all in his head. The older cover shows a drawing of 'The Tower/Magdala of Babel', a 'Birthday Cake/Pi'. There are many doors. We are all Harry Haller, it doesn't matter if one wants to believe it or not. It's undeniable. Only for people in the looney bin. Thank you for the review. Peace.

Good review

I fell in love with the character of Hermione when I read this book years ago... I wonder what that says about my mother issues 😅

I found the book interesting and wondered if the book and themes that run through it and The Glass Bead Game , oddly remind me of immersive virtual reality . The musician with the models of the characters and how adventures could play countless other games . I think that virtual realities and games are not yet up to the standard which Herman Hesse hints are possible . Maybe when AI becomes more advanced such realities may become possible . I always thought of Hermione as the female aspect of Harry Haller . The ideas of the person being a composite is explored in Ouspensky's In Search of The Miraculous . This is a strange book which seemed to be an exploration of an view of reality .

Read his Glass Bead Game - it will blow your mind

Deep deep deep stylish poetic

Thanks for this great, spot-on review. I only found your take on Harry's personality a bit reductionist. You say Harry is an intellectual, introverted, and living in his own world, which eventually turns him into a Steppenwolf, a loner not fitting in society (which the term "Steppenwolf" as well implies). My take is that Harry has a self-concept about himself,a rigid one, that makes him feel alienated when he feels nonconformist to his self-concept, his manifested view how he should feel and be, thus producing a black and white state of things or a conceptual duality of himself and the world. In my view, the steppenwolf is a residual category of every instance, feeling, and situation that disobeys the laws of Harry's self-concept and world-view. Once he met the girl, he was exposed to the exact opposite of his ideals, which enabled him to explore all the things he initially had marked as "steppenwolf-content", or nonconformist, and thus helped him to see legitimate relations between things he initially had deemed as unmatchable opposite poles.by doing so, he became a more complete person, starting to perceive the world and its phenomena as a spectrum rather than as a set of of things with dyadic black and white relations.

I still remember the feeling of finding out I was INFJ then reading this book shortly after - one of my most empowering moments in life! Hermann Hesse is my favorite author and this book is my favorite book of his. Did a little more research and found out we share the same birthday with his rising sign as my moon sign and my rising sign as his moon sign.

You haven't heard of Siddharta?

Hair-mahn Hess-uh

Google the pronunciation.

Tried to read it but had to stop at the middle of it. The bigotry and open racism made it a clear no-no. Also, use bourgeois way too much and improperly, as a synonym for reactionary aesthete. Culture is way more than the small bit the author allows himself to consider. Would not recommend.

Dude. It is “madmen”...stop with the virtue signaling